There are several issues that really irritate me. One is when statistics are presented on the national Ten O’clock News along with a statement such as the number of violent crimes has increased dramatically in the last year without statistical data to evidence the claim. As Dorothy Forbes outlines in the Research Made Simple paper in this edition it is important to explore the statistical probability or p values of data to ensure that findings have not occurred by chance.

Another concern is that when a report on substandard nursing care is published, nurse education always seems to be blamed for being too academic and not linking theory to practice sufficiently. I am not saying that education does not have a …